1. SAIWOSH SOUNDS

1.1 CONSONANTS

They are pronounced like their English equivalents, with a few exceptions:

/s/ is always hard, as in song.

/tl/ is one
sound. It is pronounced as in "hotline" but with the tip of the
tongue being pressed against the palate. When it is in final position, it
sounds a little like "ch", for the /l/ is never
vocalized in Saiwosh.

/x/ is the sound of Spanish j or Welsh ch. It is pronounced like an h,
but with the tongue retracted towards the back of the mouth.

/'/ is a "glottal stop", as in "oh-oh" or in the
Cockney pronunciation of the "t" of "Gatwick".
It is only heard between vowels, as in
na ish (my father) and saxli'a (top), and also
between a consonant and a vowel: chak'ilahiston (brick). It is
written only inside a word. It is also used to indicate that an s
followed by an h must not be pronounced like the digraph sh:hayas'hit
(tower, big house) from hayas (big) and hit
(house). It is a weak sound, which never occurs at the end of a word.

Like its North Western Amerindian ancestors, Saiwosh is tolerant of heavy consonant
clusters, especially initial ones. However, double consonants are always
reduced: postan nem (American name) is pronounced, and
often written, postanem.

Occasionally, a really difficult consonant cluster will occur.
Usually, it will be reduced to something easier to pronounce:
for instance,
achisht pchax
(artistic green) is reduced to
achishchax in ordinary conversation.

Some initial consonant clusters, like tk in tkop (white)
occur in only one word. But the initial cluster tk also occurs in fusional
words like tkik (birch) from tkopstik (Literally: white
tree). A Saiwosh word beginning with tk always refers to something
white. Similarly, the cluster xl, at the beginning of a word, is usually
(but not always) a reduction of the word xlowima (other), as in
xlam (foreign tribe or people) from xlowimatilxam (Literally:
other people).

1.2 VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS

The five vowels, /a, e, i, o, u/ are usually pronounced as in
pat, pet, pit, paw, put.
Their timbre can vary greatly, but unlike their English
counterparts they do not have off-glides, even in open syllables.

Saiwosh has two diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ which
are pronouced as in high and how.

1.3 INTONATION

Saiwosh speakers use a metronomic pronunciation which gives nearly equal stress,
loudness and duration to every syllable. All questions drop at the end, in exactly
the same way as statements. Special emphasis on a word is achieved by pronouncing
it more slowly than the rest of the sentence, or, more emphatically, by repeating
it:

Pus mumlus, mumlus hul!The cat KILLED a mouse!!!

1.4 DIALECTS

There is a continuity between the innumerable varieties of Chinook
Jargon and Saiwosh. Any text in Chinook Jargon is easy to
understand for a Saiwosh speaker, but the reverse is not true. Saiwosh Chinuk
is Chinook Jargon spoken with a Saiwosh pronunciation. Shama Chinuk
is Settlers'
Jargon, whose pronunciation is heavily influenced by English and French,
with blurred unstressed vowels
and /kl/ instead of /tl/. The voiced consonants /b/, /d/, /g/
and /dZ/ also occur. Conversely, /x/ is rare.
Settlers'
Jargon speakers commonly say klosh tilik@m instead of tlosh tilxam,
lamonti instead of lamotai (mountain, from the
French la montagne).

Saiwosh and Saiwosh Chinuk are choppy and guttural, unlike Shama Chinuk.
A harsh pronunciation is a common characteristic of North-West Amerindian
languages, and Saiwosh is definitely Amerindian. The harshest sounding words are
those of Klallam origin, which didn't exist in Chinook Jargon.

In Saiwosh Chinuk and Shama Chinuk, intonation
alone is enough to turn a statement into a question, contrary to
Saiwosh usage.

Click
here for examples of historic Saiwosh Chinuk stories. These texts
show how Chinook Jargon was actually pronounced by its Native American
users.

2. WORD-FORMATION

2.1 ROOT-WORDS

There is no clean-cut distinction between verbal, nominal and adjectival
root-words in Saiwosh. Necessary distinctions are achieved by the use of
prefixes and other modifiers.
A root-word like potlach was both nominal and verbal in
Chinook Jargon: naika potlach meant either I give and
my gift. Saiwosh, on the other hand, distinguishes between
na upotlach, I give and na apotlach, my gift.
The language being very close to its Chinook Jargon parent,
na potlach still means both I give and
my gift... and my
potlatch, a festival of North-Western
Amerindians. But the Saiwosh word for
potlatch is lipotlach.

Therefore, a sentence like
I give a present for the potlach is unambiguously rendered thus:

Na upotlach apotlach kopa lipotlach.

Actual speakers wouldn't bother themselves with a sentence in which the same root-stem
occurs three times. They would say:

Na upotlach ikta kopa lipotlach.I give something for the potlach.

Chinook Jargon speakers wouldn't have been embarrassed by
such a simple sentence either, in spite of its potential ambiguities.
They would have said something like:

Tilwechik is itself reduced in a number of words:tilwepaman, bus-passenger, for tilwechik'atlatwapepamantiltwatola, bus-fare, for tilwechik'atlatwatolatiltoman, seller of bus-tickets, for
tilwechik'atlatwapepamakukman;
the complete full word would be tilxamwehatchik'atlatwapepamakukman, which
is much too long to be really usable.

The meaning of reduced (fusional) words is not always easy to guess;
they have to be learnt one by one. Every language has its difficulties.
Saiwosh, in spite of its consonant
clusters, is rather easy to pronounce, its morphology and syntax are
simple and straightforward, but its vocabulary is opaque: tilwepaman,
bus-passenger and tiltwatola, bus-fare, are
enigmatic to someone who never rode a bus. Yet, he would understand that
tilwepaman refers to a person (final element man) and
tiltwatola refers to money (final element tola). If the
bus-driver tells him:

Our friend, who has to travel by bus for the first time in his life,
will at least comprehend:(...) money is fifty cents for (...) person without (...).

He doesn't know what a muntiltwape is, but he's sure he hasn't got
one. Therefore, he gives fifty pence to the bus-driver. Next time, he'll
know that tiltwatola is the sum of money he has to pay to ride a
bus.

2.4. EMERGENCY WORD-CREATION

When there is no Saiwosh word available to express a concept, like pickup
truck or subliminal, and it is not possible to take time to devise
a Saiwosh equivalent, for instance in the course of conversation, Saiwosh speakers
do what their Chinook linguistic ancestors did: they borrow a word from another
language, usually English or French.

A problem arises, though: because of Saiwosh peculiar phonology, the borrowed
word may not be immediately recognizable. Thus pick up truck
comes out as pikaptlak. There are two possibilities, then:

1. Both interlocutors know the English word pickup truck, and the context
makes any ambiguity impossible:

My brother has a pickup truck.Na au tuwan pikaptlak.

2. The speaker isn't too sure that his interlocutor would recognize the word.
He says:

3. PRONOUNS

3.1 SHORT AND LONG PRONOUNS

Saiwosh pronouns do not exactly correspond to English or French pronouns. The only
demonstrative of the language, ok/okok, is a
pronoun / pronominal adjective. Tlaksta,
which means who or whom, is also technically a pronoun,
and is often used as a "fourth person" pronoun.

Short form

Long form

I/me/my

na

naika

you/your (singular)

oma

omaika

he/she/it/him/her/his/its

ya

yaka

it/its

a

a

we/us/our

ntsa

ntsaika

you/your (plural)

omsa

omsaika

they/them/their

tlas

tlaska

this/that/what

ok

okok

who/whom

tlaksta

tlaksta

The second person pronouns oma/omaika and omsa/omsaika
were ma/maika and msa/msaika in Saiwosh Chinuk; the o
is a vocative prefix: oma (singular) is, literally, oh you. The
new second person pronouns were generalized to avoid confusion with the phonetically
similar first person pronouns.

The fourth person pronoun possessive is tlakswan, a reduction
of tlaksta tuwan, who own(s).

In the preceding sample, ya will always refer to John, and tlaksta to Paul. If
other people intervene, for example Jim (Chim) and Richard (Lichat), things will
become more complicated, and pronouns are less likely to be used:

4. NOUNS

4.1 NOMINALIZERS

Saiwosh has two nominalizing prefixes: a and li.

A is a Tlingit word, which means thing or it. Li
is a French definite article, which is frequent in words borrowed from the French
language, like lima, hand, and liplet, priest. In
Saiwosh, those two words have become nominalizing prefixes. A has also
retained its original meaning as an independent word:

Aki oma nanich a?Do you see it?

Examples of nominal derivatives:

Skukum, strongAskukum, strengthLiskukum, reign, dominance

Chai, to workAchai, a/the workLichai, man-made object

Li- words usually have more material or less abstract meanings
than a- words.

4.2 NUMBER AND DEFINITENESS

Saiwosh has no definite or indefinite article (English the, a, an
and it does not
mark words for singular or plural. Kayush can mean a horse,
the horse, horses, the horses, depending on the context.
Modifiers like nan (some, several), hayu
(many, much), tenyu (few, a
little), and ixt (one) are used when the speaker
deems it necessary to state number or quantity.

4.3 POSSESSION

Possession can be expressed in various ways in Saiwosh:

4.3.1 Juxtaposition:

Kayush latetHorse's head

4.3.2 Insertion of a possessive pronoun:

Kayush ya latet
Literally: horse his head

4.3.3 Insertion of mitlait (belong) or mi (of):

Latet mitlait kayush
Literally: head belong horse

Kayush mi naikaHorse of me

Mi is a Saiwosh innovation, an abbreviation of mitlait. Chinook Jargon only had mitlait.

4.3.4. To have

Na tuwan kayushI have a horse
Literally: I possess horse

Kayush mitlait naikaI have a horse
Literally: horse stays (by) me

Tuwan is never used when one talks about people:

Ixt yit pi hayu sixs mitlait naikaI have a son and many friends

5. VERBS

5.1 VERBALIZERS

Saiwosh has four verbalizing prefixes: u and munk / mu,
and chako.

U is a Tlingit verb which means to use. In Saiwosh, it is still
a verb, but it is more often a verbalizing prefix:

Wo, a wordUwo, to say, to speak.

Na u na wehachik konawesan.I use my car everyday.

Munk means to do or to make. Mu is the same word,
shortened:

Hihi, laughter; muhihi, to laugh.

Munk / mu also has a causative meaning:

Munkwim, to fell (a tree). Literally: to make a tree be fallen.

Mutlatwa, to make go, to send.

Several prefixes can be used on the same root-word:Amutlatwa, a sending, a shipmentAmutlatwaman, sender

Chako means to come or to become. It has been used as a
verbal prefix since Chinook Jargon days:

Wim, fallen.Chakowim, to fall.

5.2 CAUSATIVES

The verb munk (to do, to make) transforms a
verb into a causative:

Ya tlatwaHe goesNa munktlatwa yaka kopa anI send him to the town

This is distinct from:

Na munk yaka tlatwa anI make him go to the town

5.3 TENSES AND MODES

Tenses and modes are expressed by the context and by adverbs:

Alta na tlatwaI go now, I am going

Alki na tlatwaI shall go

Chi na tlatwaI have just gone

Chi, ikta oma munk kopa naika?What have you done for me lately?

Ankati na tlatwaI went (some time ago)

Spos na kapam, alta na tlatwaI would go if I could
Literally: If I can, then I go

Polatli chaiki
It will soon be night-time
Literally: Night soon

5.4 COPULA

It is not idiomatic to use the verb ti (to be)
too often in Saiwosh. A long pronoun is used instead:

Naika pilyaksomanI am a red-haired man

Chon yaka tlelyaksomanJohn is a black-haired man
Literally: John him black-hair-man

Achai kopa hit, okok tloshWorking at home is good
Literally: Work in house, that (is) good

5.5 PASSIVE VOICE EQUIVALENTS

There is no true passive in Saiwosh. It is normally expressed by fronting
the object:

I want you to finish your workNa stle okok oma ukopet achai
Literally: I want that-thing: you finish (your) work

Okok is sometimes omitted:

Na stle oma ukopet achai

Ya uwo (okok) ya ti na sixsHe said (that) he was my friend

8.6 INDIRECT STYLE
The indirect style is simple in Saiwosh:

He told me that he saw you in John's car yesterdayYa uwo naika okok, ya nanich omaika mi Chon ya wehachik talkisan
Literally: He tell me that-thing, he see you in John his car
yesterday

9. NUMBERS

9.1 CARDINAL NUMBERS

zero

halo

one

ixt

two

mokst

three

tlon

four

lokit

five

kwinam

six

taxam

seven

sinam

eight

stotkin

nine

kwaist

ten

tatlam

eleven

tatlam ixt

twelve

tatlam mokst

twenty

mokst tatlam

twenty-three

mokst tatlam tlon

a hundred

takamonak

two hundred and three

mokst tak tlon

three hundred and forty-five

tlon tak lokit taxam kwinam

thousand

tatlatak

two thousand

mokst tatlatak

million

milyon

billion (109)

tatlatak milyon

9.2 ORDINAL NUMBERS

first

ilip

second

moksti

third

tloni

fourth

lokiti

fifth

kwinami

sixth

taxami

seventh

sinami

eighth

stotkini

ninth

kwaisti

tenth

tatlami

eleventh

tatlam ilip

twelfth

tatlam moksti

twentieth

mokst tatlami

twenty-third

mokst tatlam tloni

hundredth

takamonaki

two hundred and third

mokst tak tloni

three hundred and forty-fifth

tlon tak lokit taxam kwinami

thousandth

tatlataki

two thousandth

mokst tatlataki

millionth

milyoni

billionth

tatlatak milyoni

Telephone numbers and other serial numbers are given as series of digits.
When two identical digits follow one another, the second identical digit
is replaced by the word wext (again):

1897ixt stotkin kwaist sinam

1999ixt kwaist wext kwaist

2002mokst halo wext mokst

9.3 FRACTIONAL NUMBERS

Sitkam kilo koshoA half kilo (=a pound) of pork

Tlam yaka tatlataki skus mi kiloA gram is a thousandth of a kilo
Literally: Gram it (is) thousandth part of kilo

10. GREETINGS AND POLITENESS

10.1 GREETINGS

Saiwosh speakers greet each other by saying Tlahauya!, which is derived
from the word tlahauyam, which means poor. It is used in every
circumstance, formal and informal.

The origin of the usage is obscure. The Chinook traders who created it probably
meant something like: "I am poor, therefore it would be useless for you
to rob me. Conversely, I count on your generosity, for I am hungry.".

This undignified attitude is unsuitable for modern Saiwosh speakers. To them,
tlahauya means: "We're all mere mortals. Therefore we are poor,
you and I, for we're both doomed to die."

Other speakers tend to think more along the lines of "this poor man (humbles
himself before you)".

Hau is a shortened form of tlahauya. It is the exact equivalent
of "Hi!" or "Hello!" in English. Saiwosh speakers says Tlahauya!
when they are starting a telephone conversation.

Good bye is Wext nanich! which means "See (you) again!"

10.2 POLITENESS

10.2.1 Terms of address

Tayi, chief, is the equivalent of Sir.
Manam, from the French Madame is the standard word for
Mrs, Ms and Miss. As terms of address,
they can be used as collectives:

Tayi, kwan omsaika amatGentlemen, please be seated

10.2.2 Asking people to do things

The more convoluted an order or request is, the more polite it is suppposed
to be:

Tlatwa!Go!

Kwan tlatwa!Please go!

Kwan oma tlatwa!Please, you go!

Tayi, kwan oma tlatwa!Please, go, Sir!

O tayi, kwan oma tlatwa!Oh Sir, if you please, go!

O tayi, tlosh spos oma tlatwa!Oh Sir, it would be good if you went!

The polite way to offer a drink:

Aki tlosh spos naika kopi kopa manam?Can I offer you a coffee?
Literally: Question: good if me coffee to lady?

To which the answer is:

Aha, tloshYes, good

Or :

Wek, masiNo, thanks

Saiwosh is a direct language, and literal translation gives
an impression of curtness which is absent from the minds of the
speakers. Excessive concision is considered vulgar:

Aki piya, au?Want a beer, mate?

11. NAMES OF THE LETTERS AND CAPITALIZATION

11.1 NAMES OF THE LETTERS

Most of the Saiwosh names of the letters come from the French,
a legacy of French-Canadian missionaries. Some consonants which are unknown in Saiwosh are
postan, that is to say "American". Letters which are not used in Saiwosh
script are nonetheless necessary to transcribe foreign words and
scientific symbols.

Letter a

a

b

postanpe

c

se

d

postante

e

e

f

ep

g

ke

h

hash

i

i

j

shi

k

ka

l

el

m

em

n

en

o

o

p

pe

q

ku

r

postan'el

s

es

t

te

u

u

v

we

w

wa

x

ix

y

ya

z

set

'

apostlop

@

saipa'a

("cyber A")

11.2 CAPITALIZATION

Proper nouns are capitalized, but not their derivatives:

The city of Boston is American.An ti Postan yaka postan.

12. TIME AND DATE

12.1 TIME

The precise expression of time is recent in Saiwosh:

ten past eighttatlam (minit) kimta stotkin awa

a quarter past eightkwotaskus kimta stotkin awa

half past eightsitkam kimta stotkin awa

ten to seventatlam (minit) kopa sinam awa

a quarter to sevenkwotaskus kopa sinam awa

the 08:47 trainstotkin awa lokit sinam (minit) chikawehach

Both the 12-hour and the 24-hour systems are used, with a preference for the
latter. When the 12-hour system is used, one can say kopsit,
shortened form of kopalatet sitkamsan (AM) or kimsit,
shortened form of kimta sitkamsan (PM):